A draft Strategy that identifies initiatives and actions the City of Coffs Harbour can take to help increase the supply of affordable housing in the local government area (LGA) is now out for public consultation until 13 October 2023.
There is currently a shortage of affordable housing in the LGA which is impacting families, individuals and employers. The draft Affordable Housing Strategy proposes 15 initiatives that the City of Coffs Harbour can pursue to facilitate and encourage development of more affordable housing. The 3 main areas of focus are:
- Advocating to government for funding and delivery of more affordable housing, including social housing.
- Facilitating and providing incentives for the development of smaller dwellings and affordable housing by the private sector through available planning controls.
- Requiring that certain residential flat buildings provide contributions to affordable housing or include a proportion of the development as smaller dwellings.
“This Strategy proposes initiatives to make the building of smaller, lower-cost housing by the private sector more attractive, as well as actions to encourage more funding and delivery of affordable housing by government and not-for-profit organisations,” said Ian Fitzgibbon, Acting Director City Planning & Communities at City of Coffs Harbour.
“The role of councils is to influence housing supply through land use zoning, development controls, the timing of land release, location of services and facilities and the levying of development contributions and application fees.
“No one sector can solve this issue alone, and through this Strategy, the City of Coffs Harbour is seeking to play its part in contributing to a solution.”
People can provide comments and feedback on the draft Affordable Housing Strategy by going to haveyoursay.coffsharbour.nsw.gov.au/draft-affordable-housing-strategy.
The submission period closes at 5pm on Friday 13 October 2023.
